(CNN/USA TODAY) -- The Malaysian Air Force
has traced the last known location of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 to a
spot above Pulau Perak, a very small island in the Straits of Malacca
and hundreds of miles from the usual Kuala Lumpur to Beijing flight
path, according to a senior Malaysian Air Force official.

The official
declined to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

If the Malaysian Air
Force data cited by the source is correct, the aircraft was flying the
opposite direction from its scheduled destination and on the opposite
side of the Malay Peninsula from its scheduled route.

Previous accounts had the aircraft losing touch with air traffic control near the coast of Vietnam.

Families: Cellphones of missing passengers still ring

Meanwhile, family members of a few passengers aboard missing Malaysia Airlines
Flight MH370 are pushing the airline to search for the GPS location of
their loved ones' cellphones after saying they'd successfully placed
calls to missing passengers' mobile phones.

A few family members
said dialing the numbers resulted in ringing tones on the other end,
even though the calls weren't picked up, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. Bian Liangwei, sister of one of the passengers, told the International Business Times
that she reached her older brother's phone Monday afternoon.

"If I
could get through, the police could locate the position, and there is a
chance he could still be alive," she said.

"The
ringing is not actually ringing at the other phone yet," industry
analyst Jeff Kagan said. "It's just telling you that the network is in
the process of finding and connecting to it."

Locally placed calls
may connect almost instantaneously, he said, but long-distance or
international calls may "ring" several times before the phone is found
or the system can't find it and disconnects the call.

Each carrier
handles voicemail differently, but in general calls are all handled
similarly. The ringing keeps callers from hanging up when they hear no
sound, said Amy Storey, spokeswoman for CTIA, the Washington, D.C.-based
trade group for wireless carriers. "The ringing sound has nothing to do
with the actual 'ringing' of the called party's device," she said.

The
ringing is "part of the process of wireless" communication, Kagan said.
"In this particular case it's painful because it gives people false
hope."

During a meeting with passengers' families, Malaysia Airlines' Hugh Dunleavy said the company had similar results -
it tried calling mobile phones of crewmembers, which also rang. The
company turned over those phone numbers to Chinese authorities, the Post reported.